Apple seeds from grocery store apples

[Jordan Selsor]

An we are off!

 

[PoorSand]

Here's some more miscellaneous data on some seed-grown apple trees. This past weekend I was on a property where fifty seed-grown apple tree whips were planted twelve years ago. No mulch. No fertilizer. Just repurposed 4' high chicken wire, bent into 6" diameter cylinders around most of them. Secondhand grow tubes were over the others. That "protection" was held up by one rebar, old pipe, or conduit at each tree. Thirteen of the trees were still alive. One had a bunch of little red crabapples hanging on it. Most of the other survivors looked ready for topworking.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Just curious, if a deer, bird, squirrel ate an apple, and pooped out the seeds somewhere, would those seeds grow into a tree? Is this like a 1 in a million chance? In my area I see no wild apple trees anywhere, and I was wondering after having my small orchard around for years, if I would start seeing some wild apple trees in the woods.

 

[Mortenson]

I have also never seen a wild apple tree around here, although there are many growing in yards.

 

[PoorSand]

I happen upon volunteer apple seedlings from time to time. Maybe if I kept an eye out for them, I'd notice them more often. Where I do notice them is in loamy sand too coarse textured for grass sod to establish itself, and shaded during the afternoon.

 

[cavey]

Just curious, if a deer, bird, squirrel ate an apple, and pooped out the seeds somewhere, would those seeds grow into a tree? Is this like a 1 in a million chance? In my area I see no wild apple trees anywhere, and I was wondering after having my small orchard around for years, if I would start seeing some wild apple trees in the woods.

We have hundreds upon hundreds of wild seeded "pasture" apple and crab trees around. I have found dozens of just trees that have late fruit still hanging which I have been cutting scion off of. They are common in fence lines and old pastures around here - a multi county area - I would even say its a regionally common thing. Historically there were a fair amount of commercial orchards, tons of larger home/farm orchards and almost every rural homestead had at least a few fruit trees. If you drive around you can spot them in old pastures everywhere. So I would not say its a 1 in a million chance ... many likely sprout up but are then browsed or mowed down. One thing to remember is that most will just be crabs of differing sizes, a few will be able to be fresh eaten and there are those rare jems of apples that are really good for eating, baking or cider. Last night I had a buddy tell me about a 40' tall apple tree with an almost 1 1/2' dia trunk that has huge red apples out back at the end of an old field far from the house and barn. It may be a remnant of an old orchard but is likely just a wild seeded apple tree that grew up out in the old pasture. I saw pics of the apples and they look beautiful, bright red and large,... so Im going to go out and try and get some scion and take a look at it in person.

Once you start spotting them you will see them all over. I notice many while snowmobiling up north but they are far more common around here.

 

[Telemark]

Just curious, if a deer, bird, squirrel ate an apple, and pooped out the seeds somewhere, would those seeds grow into a tree? Is this like a 1 in a million chance? In my area I see no wild apple trees anywhere, and I was wondering after having my small orchard around for years, if I would start seeing some wild apple trees in the woods.

It really depends on a lot of factors. A squirrel or bird is unlikely to ever poop out a whole seed. A coyote will. I'm not sure about deer. Apple seeds are VERY unlikely to turn into trees as far as I know, and that is with perfect conditions. From what I have seen, a healthy tree might produce 5-10 progeny over 50 years in good conditions. But again, I think it depends on so many factors.

 

[chickenlittle]

Look in the spring when they are blooming and you are likely to find apple trees in lots of places where they probably weren't planted by someone.

 

[sandbur]

Look in the spring when they are blooming and you are likely to find apple trees in lots of places where they probably weren't planted by someone.

I usually take a picture of the tree at blooming time and try and incorporate some other large tree or something to pinpoint the location.

Check the tree from late August on for fruit size and drop/ ripening time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cavey]

I ribbon blooming trees on my land, that helps when you first obtain land... or just find that strange blooming tree where you never thought there was one.

4wanderingeyes, From Trego south to Spooner and south west of there you'll find some trees, for sure, just look at the pastures of some of the old dairy farms in the ag areas. A few of those scruffy trees out in those pastures are fruit trees - like chickenlittle says look in the spring for blooms. To the north of Trego your getting into manly forested areas and your just not going to see them in the same numbers,,, Same with south east of Spooner in the forest and swamp areas down there.

 

[BuckSnort]

I ribbon blooming trees on my land, that helps when you first obtain land... or just find that strange blooming tree where you never thought there was one.

4wanderingeyes, From Trego south to Spooner and south west of there you'll find some trees, for sure, just look at the pastures of some of the old dairy farms in the ag areas. A few of those scruffy trees out in those pastures are fruit trees - like chickenlittle says look in the spring for blooms. To the north of Trego your getting into manly forested areas and your just not going to see them in the same numbers,,, Same with south east of Spooner in the forest and swamp areas down there.

It’s interesting you bring that up, I’m in the Spooner area also. There is a killer tree on the corner of 53 & 253 on an old farm I just noticed, still holding fruit, looks like it was an excellent crop too. One of these days I should stop in there and ask for scion. Also have noticed some good trees on the road edges down west of Shell Lake.

 

[sandbur]

I ribbon blooming trees on my land, that helps when you first obtain land... or just find that strange blooming tree where you never thought there was one.

4wanderingeyes, From Trego south to Spooner and south west of there you'll find some trees, for sure, just look at the pastures of some of the old dairy farms in the ag areas. A few of those scruffy trees out in those pastures are fruit trees - like chickenlittle says look in the spring for blooms. To the north of Trego your getting into manly forested areas and your just not going to see them in the same numbers,,, Same with south east of Spooner in the forest and swamp areas down there.

I see the same thing here in central Minnesota. Lots of wild crabs along the ditch banks where apples must have floated down and an occasional bigger apple.

North of Brainerd tends to be more forest and there are very few wild crabs or apples except by an old homestead.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cavey]

It’s interesting you bring that up, I’m in the Spooner area also. There is a killer tree on the corner of 53 & 253 on an old farm I just noticed, still holding fruit, looks like it was an excellent crop too. One of these days I should stop in there and ask for scion. Also have noticed some good trees on the road edges down west of Shell Lake.

Sorona, not sure if the county has a GIS web site but onx hunt has a great app for seeing who owns the property if one wants to ask for permission. I have never been turned down for cutting scion - some people, most actually, are very interested ... then there are a few of those - I may get shot here before I get to the door moments but those end up being the most fun.

Washburn county does have a gis web site you can click on that property and see who owns it and track them down....
http://washburncowi.wgxtreme.com/property

 

[IkemanTx]

Jordan, I agree with what Jack just posted and will add the following:

You know one parent of your seed, but you have no idea what the other parent was. However, there is a good chance it was a ornamental crabapple. In professional orchards, it is a common practice to plant ornamental crabs for pollinating the apple trees that produce fruit.

Reasons for this are:

1. It allows the grower to plant a single cultivar in one area and to manage that area as one unit without anything being mixed up.

2. It eliminates the need for less desirable cultivars just for their use as pollen sources.

3. Third, it prevents laborers from mixing up apples in harvest baskets and bins.

No one knows for sure, but the other parent is likely an ornamental crab. Lots of crabs are not large trees, so there you go. We are back to the box of chocolates...……..

Spot on. The master grafter in the class I took loved to tell stories. At one orchard they were having issues with pollination. He sent his guys in and simply grafted a single crabapple branch to each of the production trees. He said it worked great for a year. Production went way back up! The next dormant season, the pruners went in and pruned out the crabapple branches from most of the trees. Talk about the left hand and right hand working against each other!

That is an awesome idea!! I might have to try this when I start doing fruit trees.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BuckSnort]

Here is one of the trees I grew from a store bought apple last year. Chip budded a Chestnut Crab in the fall and as you can see the bud is just taking off so I cut the top off just above the bud. Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll have a nice Chestnut whip.

 

[BuckSnort]

Just thought I would share this picture, I dug up some trees from the grocery store seeds that were planted a few years ago planning to graft them this year. The root systems are actually pretty impressive.

 

[BuckSnort]

Hardy Cumberland grafted onto the grocery store apple seed rootstock is off to the races!

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Hardy Cumberland grafted onto the grocery store apple seed rootstock is off to the races!
View attachment 29698

Very nice! All your grafts on seed grown root stock?

 

[BuckSnort]

Very nice! All your grafts on seed grown root stock?

Mostly I have grafted to B118 & some Antonovka, these were more of an experiment. And free. But I am pretty happy with the results so far.